


Pet Project

by DJRezYourGays



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: All robots are friend-shaped tbh, Gen, Scrappers remind me of Dog from Half-Life 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-31 04:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12674205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJRezYourGays/pseuds/DJRezYourGays
Summary: While playing fetch with an overridden scrapper, Aloy contemplates just how many of the machine's decisions really are its own.MicroWriMo 2017Prompt: Strings





	Pet Project

Orange sparks mingled with the blue light of the scrapper's laser as it carved through the steel beam. The twisted metal fell to the ground with a dull thud before being scooped up and ferried over to where Aloy waited. The Nora laughed at the offering.

"Whoa! That's a bit big, big guy," she said. "If you want to play fetch, I'll need something I can throw."

The overridden scrapper regarded the heavy steel beam for a moment before firing up its laser again, carving it into thin strips. It used its head to roll one of the newly-cut rods closer to Aloy, the fresh snow rapidly cooling the glowing edge where it had been severed. Aloy touched it gingerly to test the temperature before picking up the steel rod, winding up, and giving it a hearty sidearm swing across the plateau. 

At once, the scrapper bounded off after it, shaking the ground around her in its excitement. Aloy laughed again, taking a step back and watching the machine eager chase down the rod, crashing face-first into the dirt in an effort to scoop it up and turn about to hurry back to her. She cupped both hands over her mouth to stifle the laughter at the poor machine, now covered in dirt and twigs but not even seeming to notice as it bounded back over and dropped the metal stick at her feet.

"Good boy!" Aloy patted the scrapper's head, taking a moment to pry out some of the worst wads of frozen earth stuck in its primary sensor sockets. She took up the rod and flung it again, throwing it so hard her shoulder ached in hopes of giving the machine a decent chase. Off again it went, kicking up snow and dirt in its wake until Aloy was just as coated in the stuff as it was. Aloy sputtered and cleared the worst of it from her face, seeing the scrapper again dive at the ground after its prize. 

It was uncanny. Before she had learned about Gaia and Hades and Project Zero Dawn, the fact that the machines behaved like animals seemed perfectly natural. They were predators or prey, big and small - well, big and bigger, really - with a glimmer of intelligence and a will to survive. 

Now that she knew the truth, she wondered what really set the two apart, the machines and the animals. Certainly Gaia had based one on the other given the records she'd seen, but what made a machine that had been programmed to think it was a boar or a big cat different from an actual boar or big cat? Was there really any difference at all?

Of course there was, Aloy thought as the scrapper skidded to a halt, dropping the steel bar and leaning down instinctively for its reward. She pet its head again, wondering all the while what made a metal creature crave a thing like touch before tossing the rod again and sending it off in search of the same. Certainly she couldn't override a boar, Aloy thought. Although there were domesticated animals. You could train animals. Was that all overriding was? Training, but faster?

As the rod hit the ground at her feet with a light thud, Aloy paused to consider the scrapper in front of her, its posture suggesting a nervous eagerness. It seemed to want to keep playing fetch, to want to make Aloy happy so she would keep throwing the stick again and again. Or was she just imagining all that? How much of the scrapper's will was honestly its own? First from its programming, and now with her override - was there any will that just belonged to the machine itself?

Before she could wander far down that train of thought, the scrapper leaned forward suddenly to bump its head against her chest, settling back again. It glance down at the rod, and then back at her, tilting its head to one side. Aloy laughed, picking up the stick and pointing it at the scrapper. "All right," she said. "One more."

With all her might, she hurled the stick as far as she could, sending the scrapper happily bounding off after it. As it went, the Nora sighed, knowing this was one question she might never have a satisfying answer to. As she watched the scrapper again nosedive into the dirt with all the playfulness of a giant metal puppy, however, she realized it might not matter so much in the end.


End file.
